SuperLuchas: Mistico “Ya Firmo Con WWE!”

Mistico has signed a deal with WWE. There’s been a background talk about Mistico leaving CMLL of late, especially the last week, but nothing anyone was able to definitively confirm until now. I had heard multiple rumors about his destination, but WWE had always seemed the most likely. He’s expected to head to Florida Championship Wrestling, where he’ll join Alex Koslov (and Hijo de Medico Asesino!) as luchadors training for WWE.

Mistico’s last Arena Mexico match was January 18th, the two fall loss in the main event where Porky got mad at Mistico. Mistico worked the two show NJPW tour and has not been in a CMLL ring since. It’s possible he may work a final show or two in CMLL if his Florida commitment doesn’t start right away, but he’s obviously out of the Dos Leyendas plans. Friday’s Averno/Dorada feuding was intended to create a replacement match (or relevos tag partners.)

CMLL almost certainly owns the Mistico gimmick, though WWE would likely given him their own anyway. CMLL probably won’t put someone new in the suit, because they’ve been building Sombra up as the replacement lead tecnico for about 10 months already. Astro Boy, Mistico’s brother, probably won’t be affected only because they barely use him as is.

Mistico likely told CMLL he was leaving in late December, or maybe around when the CMLL/NJPW cards first came out, because it would explain why NJPW announced Mistico as working those cards while CMLL didn’t have him listed. Even though CMLL probably knew he was on his way out, Mistico did beat Negro Casas and Ultimo Guerrero (by DQ) in singles matches during the last month.

Alberto Del Rio’s success was the catalyst for Mistico jumping to WWE. Dos Caras Jr. was never great in CMLL, but has gotten over great in WWE. The line of thinking – and not just for Mistico – is if a guy who never really got over much in Mexico got over that easily in the US, it should be easy for bigger stars to succeed. I’m not sure that’s true – a lot of Alberto’s success is due to WWE deciding he was going to be be a big star, real quick – but it definitely gives Mexican wrestlers more faith in the company compared to how guys like the Mexicools were used.

UPDATE: The article states Mistico flew to the US to sign the WWE contract this past Tuesday, and CMLL did not find out until after the fact. Mistico had previously been open with CMLL about any contact with WWE, but had kept CMLL out of the loop recently. His most recent tryout match was – in California – was without CMLL’s permission. Leaving like this likely precludes Mistico from returning unless there are massive changes in CMLL leadership between now and then.

The article – which you can purchase here – gives the impression that if Mistico were to do it all over again, he would’ve joined WWE after his original tryout in 2007.

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40 thoughts on “SuperLuchas: Mistico “Ya Firmo Con WWE!””

Alberto speaks English too, which is a bigger advantage than most guys in Mexico and he’s got the size.

I see Mistico either being a notch below Rey in success or worst-case he experiences what Kaval did.

You know just looking at his schedule you can tell something was up and he’s most likely leaving in good terms with CMLL because there was no burial of him on their shows. Then again, when does CMLL ever do that stuff.

I wonder if the plan was for Mistico to lose the mask on the way out at Dos Leyendas? Maybe McMahon & company decided they wanted to keep him masked (Rey Jr. Doppelganger gimmick rumored for Low-ki perhaps?) so he backed out?
That would fit the strong build on the way out…

@Cubs – then CMLL had a wack plan, LOL.
I would think this would explain the stagnant lineup CMLL has been churning out recently. I also wonder if Dorada is in the mix now, despite his injury, because he is gonna get significant time off after Dos Leyendas?

@Nikita: Yeah, that was not the plan. The plan was Mistico/Averno vs Fantasma/Mephisto and the guy who was planned to lose is still in all likelihood going to lose in March barring a last second change of plans which nobody expects.

This story is huge news. It’s been building for a week or two now. Well technically a few years now but those other rumors in the past were all just hearsay and at no point was Mistico commited to leaving like he was back in October when he met the WWE officials. This will clearly be the top story of the year not only due to Mistico leaving but also the fallout of his decision to leave. The people in charge of CMLL are not stupid… okay… actually they can be at times… but this time they’re actually forward thinking and they know the company will not draw with guys like Maximo, Toscano, Efesto, Vangelis and Metro in semi-main and main events. They’ve contacted a big name to make his return and he’s going to be coming back whether it’s sooner or later. Mistico leaving opens the door for the return to be even sooner. Of course there is fallout from that decision as well b/c there are plenty of CMLL guys who don’t want said returning wrestler to re-enter their rings b/c they’ve worked with him in the past and they know how unprofessional he can be. So there are lots of rumblings about certain CMLL guys who are talking to AAA about a change of scenery. It’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out.

As for Mistico joining the WWE… I’m glad he’ll be making decent money and hope it works out even though it sucks to see my favorite wrestler joining a company that has a horrible track record dealing with smaller talented guys. Is it a good decision? Nobody can say yes or no to that right now unless they’re time travellers. There is one absolute fact about his decision though:

Mistico cannot fail, he MUST succeed.

The consequences of this decision will effect him the rest of his career. If he had left back in 2007 and things wouldn’t have worked out, he could return to Mexico just fine and continue his career as it was. He could come up with a million excuses as to why a WWE run didn’t work. But this is 2011 and things are different. Mistico cannot fail and return to Mexico to tell SuperLuchas “WWE hates Mexicans so they never gave me a chance.” That will not fly now that Dos Caras Jr. is a star. If Mistico fails whether it be his own fault or whether the WWE just wastes another talent – this will impact his future career in Mexico b/c they will see him as a wrestler who represented Mexico and failed on a national level. Good luck trying to return to Mexico and be a top draw after that!

It’s no secret Mistico partly made his decision due to being jealous of Dos Caras Jr.’s success (the other part being frustrated with how inept the people in charge of CMLL are – Paco Alonso leading the way). Hopefully Mistico talked to some smart people who explained to him that Dos Jr. has two things on him: he speaks English & he’s tall. It’s all nice and stuff to think you can be the next Rey Misterio Jr. but Rey Jr. is a one of a kind wrestler. There may never be another him. For his sake I hope Mistico makes friends with Rey and learns how to be a great small wrestler doing the WWE style. The worst thing Mistico can do is go to Florida with the assumption that he knows everything already. That will automatically be a nail in his coffin.

Oh, and as far as I know Mistico is leaving CMLL on decent terms. He didn’t just pack up and say “I’m out” before leaving for the Japan tour. CMLL knew he had another WWE tryout in October and they knew the date WWE told him to make a decision by. If you all recall – there was lots of hype about Dragon Rojo winning Block A of the Juniors tournament in December and challenging Mistico who *shockingly* lost to Averno cleanly a week later which confused everyone. It’s not so confusing any more, huh? Clearly Mistico informed CMLL of his plans during that week in December and they changed things up. He also finished up all his bookings and from what I was told had no problem losing to anyone before he left. Paco may be angry that Mistico chose to leave but it’s not the type of anger he has for wrestlers who just bolt without saying anything and jump to his main rival.

The next few weeks could be very interesting as we see how Mistico’s move effects everyone else in Mexico. I expect CMLL to stay the course since the Dos Leyendas plans are already pretty much finalized. The show to watch for is AAA’s Rey De Reyes. The first ever back-to-back luchablog chats on the 18th/19th could be quite interesting.

“Of course there is fallout from that decision as well b/c there are plenty of CMLL guys who don’t want said returning wrestler to re-enter their rings b/c they’ve worked with him in the past and they know how unprofessional he can be”

Hope he avails himself to those english language tapes that are endlessly advertised on TV.
Seriously though, does anyone know how his english is?
Talent in the ring and workrate are secondary. The days of a manger doing promos for you are history. So its english or die for the Mystical one.

@dmac: I think the smart thing to do would be after having him in FCW for a bit you bring him up as Rey’s protege. That way Rey can do the talking for them until Mistico gets comfortable. In the meantime he can only say one or two lines – perhaps with a catchphrase so the typical WWE fan can get behind him.

Of course this is the WWE so there is always the chance they’ll throw him out there with a scripted promo, he’ll botch some words due to nerves or whatnot and he’ll immediatly be branded a dumb foreigner who can’t work or speak. You can never tell with Vince’s company.

I hope for his sake they aren’t dumb enough to bring him up without a mask though. That would be a disaster and guarantee failure.

Well…to be honest, Mistico es the far better fit to take over Rey Mysterios spot in the WWE. Dos Caras Jr wasnt really the high flying type that Mysterio used to be.

Plus puting the dos caras mask back on Alberto would not make sense. If WWE buys misticos name from CMLL, they can use him to tag with Rey or even as his little brother or some shit like that. Regardless…mistico was lost in the shuffle in CMLL and the fans got tired of him being treated as John Cena mexican style. So lets see how this works out….

WWE can definetly make good money off the mistico name, so i dont see them taking the mask off him, but i keep hearing, i saw u say that CMLL owns the rights to the name, but have also heard that Mistico owns the right to his name.

Well I don’t think they will remove his mask for one the guy has a face for radio and two the wwe needs a new mask to sell Rey as we have all seen is in his last few years of wrestling. He himself has said that he wants to retire.

As for getting buried let’s be honest Rey has been in some shitty story lines in the wwe but he has always hung in there and been rewarded for doing it. I think at the end of the day that’s what makes or breaks a guy in the wwe. As soon as a guy thinks he is to good for losing, doing a dumb skit, or working house shows only well he might as well pack his bags.

Well, I thought that they would unmask Dos, because the WWE has the viewpoint that Rey Jr. is unique because he is masked, and having two masked guys would ruin that uniqueness.

I also remember posting here that I thought if anyone had a shot in WWE it would be Dos, because of his size, and his style. Although I liked Dos in CMLL, he was never a stricly lucha-style worker – his time with Inoki in Japan was obvious.

However, I am willing to admit I didn’t think that in less than a year people would be clamoring for him to win the Rumble and/or a championship.

I figured that, if anything, he would have been brought in as a Mexican Zeke Jackson or something.

@Rob: I love the idea of CMLL guys jumping to AAA to avoid working with someone they think is unprofessional. They won’t have to wok with any unprofessional workers in AAA!

I assume if Wagner is brought back, PARK won’t be far behind. They’ve both managed to be treated like even bigger stars since their last appearances in Arena Mexico. Perro seems to have diminished himself with his act in AAA, but they both were put over huge. I wonder if Wagner and PARK will be able to land spots for their kids in CMLL?

@Alan: I think their kids would be welcomed. Some of these 2nd/3rd generation wrestlers they’ve brought in are really inexperienced.

I keep wanting to use the term “green” for inexperience, but last time I used it on a lucha board, people got upset about it AND we had to spend time explaining what the word meant and how its not a bad thing being called ‘green’.